Combination mop, scrubbing brush, and wringer



Nov. 23, 1954 J. KALINOWSKI MOP, SCRUBBING BRUSH AND WRINGER Filed Feb. 16, 1952 United States Patent COMBINATION MOP, SCRUBBING BRUSH, AND WRINGER Joseph Kalinowski, Philadelphia, Pa.

Application February 16, 1952, Serial No. 271,885

1 Claim. (Cl. 116) My invention relates to a new and useful combination mop, scrubbing brush and wringer and has for one of its objects to generally improve devices of this character to produce an exceedingly simple, efficient and durable article for cleaning a surface such as a floor or floor covering, by utilizing the functions of brushing, scrubbing and mopping.

Another object of the invention is to produce a combination cleaning implement consisting of a head carrying an absorbent mop unit and the bristle elements of a brush, said head having a socket for the reception of a handle and provided with a manually operated compressing or wringing fixture detachably secured to said head whereby said fixture may be removed and assembled on another similar cleaning instrumentality when a former one has become worn or damaged.

Another object of this invention is to produce a compressing element including means whereby said element may be removably assembled on the head of a cleaning element and further including means to function as a hand-hold for operating the compressing element and also act as a holder for cooperation with the handle to temporarily retain the compressing element in an inoperative position.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a toggle or double hinge connection as a part of the compressing member for securing the latter to the head of the cleaning element whereby said compressing member may be swung to a position below the cleansing element and also moved to a position substantially parallel with the axis of a handle mounted in the head of said cleansing element.

A further object of the invention is to construct the compressing element in a unique manner from sheet material fashioned to provide hinge knuckles and means to fasten the hand-hold thereto and prevent accidental displacement of said hand-hold.

A still further object of this invention is to produce a hand-hold of novel formation and including an arrangement whereby said hand-hold may be utilized as a holder having a clamping action on a handle of the cleaning implement.

With the above and other objects in view this invention consists of the details of construction and combination of elements hereinafter set forth and then designated by the claim.

In order that those skilled in the art to which this invention appertains may understand how to make and use the same I will describe its construction in detail referring by numerals to the accompanying drawing, forming a part hereof, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a combination cleaning implement, constructed in accordance with my invention, looking at the rear thereof with the compressing member in the same plane as the head of the device and a portion of the handle broken off.

Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof with a portion of the hand-hold broken away.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view-on the line 33 of Fig. 2 to illustrate certain details of construction of "t'he double hinge connection for the compressing mem- Fig. 4 is a side view of the implement, on a reduced scale, showing the manner of temporarily retaining the compressing member in an inoperative position and illustrating in dotted lines how said member is employed to squeeze liquid from the absorbent element.

2,694,824 Patented Nov. 23, 1954 In carrying out my invention as herein embodied 10 represents the cleaning member, as a whole, which comprises a head 11 produced from an oblong block of wood or other equivalent appropriate material, an absorbent element 12, such as a strip of cellulose sponge, secured to the bottom face of the head by a suitable adhesive, and the bristle elements 13 of a brush member fixed in and projecting from the forward edge of the head. The soft absorbent element 12, preferably, is larger than the head 11, especially being longer than said head, Fig. 2, so that said absorbent element will strike any object that the ends of the device may come in contact with to prevent marring of or damage to such object should the harder head strike the same.

A socket is formed in the top of the head adjacent the rear edge thereof for the reception of a removable handle 14 projecting upwardly and rearwardly at an appropriate angle as may be seen in Fig. 4.

The compressing member 15 includes an oblong metal plate 16 of substantially the same length as the absorbent element and slightly wider than the latter. The plate, preferably, is corrugated with the ridges and valleys running lengthwise thereof or from end to end and the outer longitudinal edge is turned over substantially perpendicular to the face of the plate, as shown at 17, so as to form a gutter and shield when the compressing member is swung underneath of or against the bottom face of the absorbent element.

Adjacent opposite ends of the plate 16 along the inner edge thereof are formed integral hinge knuckles 18, the axes of which are in the plane of said inner edge of the plate. A similarly formed integral socket 19 is provided along the central portion of the inner edge of said plate between the hinge knuckles 18 and spaced therefrom, said socket being in a plane outside of the back of the plate 16 and offset relative to said hinge knuckles.

A hinge bolt element 20 is formed from a piece of heavy gage wire or rod having the ends bent to generally U-shape to provide a body 21, the central portion of which is offset to clear the socket 19, and two journals 22 and 23 at each end. The journals 23 are defined by the offset portion of the body 21 and the crotches of the U-shaped bends while the journals 22 are between said crotches and the terminals of the rod. The journals of each pair are in spaced parallel relation.

The plate 16 is rotatable about the body of the hinge bolt member through the medium of the hinge knuckles 18 embracing the journals 23 and said hinge bolt member is rotatably connected with the cleaning member, particularly the head 11, by means of clips 24 removably fastened to said head by screws 25. Each clip includes a body 26, through which a single screw is projected for attaching it to the head, a right angle lip 27 at the upper end, to overlap the top face of the head and prevent tilting of the clip, and a semicircular bearing 28 to receive one of the journals 22, the open side of said semicircular bearing being closed by the back wall of the head against which the clip body rests.

A hand-hold 29 is provided for operating the compressing member and is produced from heavy gage wire or rod material formed with a return bend to provide a pair of parallel strands 30 joined at their terminals by a cross-piece 31 to resiliently urge said strands towards each other. At a distance from the cross-piece these strands are bent to acute angles in parallelism to form knees 32 adapted to straddle and grip the handle 14. From the knee portions, the strands are bent outward to provide divergent portions 33 and are again bent into parallelism to form reach sections 34 extending across the back of the plate and finally the ends are bent inward towards each other to provide toes 35 in endwise alignment which toes are inserted in the ends of the socket 19.

When the toes 35 are entered into the socket the inner longitudinal edge of the compressing plate 16 is attached to the hand-hold and to fasten the outer longitudinal edge portion of said plate to said hand-hold, small sections of the plate are partially severed therefrom to form tongues 36 which are bent around the reach sections 34 in a manner to securely hold the parts together.

In practice, while the cleaning unit is being used the compressing member is swung about the hinge journals 23 until the plate 16 is substantially in the same plane as the hinge bolt member 20' andthensaidplate 16 and the hinge bolt member 20: are swung in unison on the journals 22 until the knees 32 straddle and resiliently engage the handle 14' with a. clamping effect so as to temporarily holdthe compressing member in an inoperative position.

While said compressing member is in the inoperative position, the absorbent. element 12 can be employed for scrubbing purposes with the use of asuitable cleansing liquid and if a spot of foreign substance is encountered which is extra difficult to remove the implement is rotated suificiently to bring the brush element or bristles 13' into contact with the surface being cleaned; After using the brush element, the implement can again be rotated to return the absorbent element 12 to the surface being cleaned.

After a preselected area of surface is scrubbed, the compressing member is released from the handle 14 by the use of suificient force to disengage the knees from said handle. Said compressing member may now be swung around on the axis of the aligned journals 23 until the hinge bolt member 20 assumes a position substantially or actually parallel with the back of the cleaning member to locate the aligned journals 23 an appreciable distance below the head 11, even approaching the underneath working surface of the absorbent element 12. Thereafter, the grip portion of the hand-hold, which grip portion is provided by the legs 30, can be firmly grasped and moved in a generally upward direction in front of and towards the head 11, Fig. 4. The plate 16 will compress the absorbent member and expel any liquid therefrom, the corrugations assisting this action.

The guard 17 following the movements of the grip portion will function to reduce to a minimum the likelihood of the liquid being squirted onto the operators hand or clothes and the gutter formed by said guard will assist in directing the expelled liquid into a container if the implement is tilted slightly endwise of the cleaning member.

When the cleansing member is worn to such an extent that it is practically of no further use, the compressing member, with its hinge elements, can be readily removed by withdrawing the screws 25 and attaching said compressing member to another or substitute cleaning member. This eliminates the necessity of discarding the entire apparatus resulting in a considerable saving to the customer who uses such a device. In fact substitute cleaning members can have holes to receive the screws provided in the rear edge of the head 11 at properly spaced locations.

Especial attention is called to the fact that, the forward edge of the plate 16 has a notch 37 formed at each end of the socket 19 providing free corners 38 which are bent upward against the reach portions 34 of the handhold 29 adjacent the toes 35 and on the sides of said reach portions 34 opposite the respective ends of the socket 19 to hold the toes in the socket ends.

Of course I do not wish to be limited to the exact details of construction herein shown and described as these may be varied within the scope of the appended claim without departing from the spirit of my invention.

Having described my invention what I claim as new and useful is:

A combination mop, scrubbing brush and wringer comprising a cleaning member including an oblong wooden head having an absorbent element secured to the bottom face and brush bristles extending from the front face thereof, a handle mounted in the top of the head contiguous the rear edge thereof and projecting at an angle upwardly and rearwardly relative to said cleaning member, a hinge bolt element having two spaced parallel journals at each end providing two pairs of aligned journals, a pair of clips each including a body lying against the rear edge of the head and provided with a semi-circular bearing, said body having a lip projecting over the top face of the head, a single fastening device to removably attach each of the clips to the back of the head, the bearing portions of said clips having one pair of said aligned hinge journals mounted therein, a compressing plate, means thereon engaging the other pair of said aligned hinge journals, a socket along the inner longitudinal edge of said compressing plate midway between the ends thereof which compressing plate also has notches adjacent the ends of the socket to provide free and bendable corners opposed to and spaced from said socket ends, said compressing plate further provided with integral tongues adjacent the outer free swinging edge thereof, and a hand-hold fashioned from relatively stiff wire having some inherent resiliency and including a pair of spaced strands joined at their outer ends to provide a grip with off-set knees intermediate the ends for clamping engagement with the handle, divergent strands inwardly of the knees and extending to the compressing plate, reach portions extending from the divergent strands across said compressing plate and provided with inturned toes projecting into the ends of the socket, the aforesaid tongues embracing said reach portions of the hand-hold and the bendable corners engaging said reach portions at the toes, said corners being bent after the toes are entered in the socket.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,551,668 Johnson Sept. 1, 1925 2,406,950 Jackson Sept. 3, 1946 2,418,802 Bendar Apr. 8, 1947 2,515,403 Greenleaf et al. July 18, 1950 2,632,192 Mallory Mar. 24, 1953 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 2,504 Great Britain Jan. 31, 1913 985,563 France Mar. 14, 1951 986,428 France Mar. 28, 1951 

